'Like an extra power' - What makes Al Fateh fans among best in RSL | OneFootball

Ask anyone who’s been to Al Fateh Stadium in the past couple of seasons, and they’ll most probably all agree on one thing.

That, even if the Al Ahsa club are battling for Roshn Saudi League survival or aiming to gatecrash the top half of the table, it provides one of the most intimate-but-intimidating atmospheres in the Saudi Arabian top flight.

Two seasons ago, that fervent loyal support played a huge part in Al Fateh staying in the RSL, when they provided one of the greatest escapes from relegation in the competition’s history.

And in the recently concluded 2025-26 campaign, the Al Fateh faithful again proved their side’s proverbial “12th man”, turning their 10,000-seater arena into a cauldron of noise and colour.

But don’t just take our word for it. We spoke to Portuguese defender Jorge Fernandes, who recently departed Al Fateh after 18 months there, to get a sense of just how vital the club support has been to the team.

“Yeah, it's really, really important for us,” Fernandes tells the Saudi Pro League. “We have this amazing support from our fans. Every game at home is special; they always make a good performance.

“They always support us and this is, for us as football players, something that you feel it. When you are on the pitch, you feel the emotions that these people share with us, and they always believe in us, and they try always to give a good message to us - even when we're not making so good a job.

“And the young kids - we have a lot of young kids in Al Ahsa - are always coming to us and they wanting to take a photo with us, and we try to us that as motivation.

“So, for us players, it’s something really special when we have a team behind us with this kind of support.”

The hugely significant match at home to Al Khaleej at the end of April offers an obvious example of the power of the Al Fateh fan base. Jose Gomes’ side were winless in 13 games, a run stretching back to mid-January, and had thus slipped to two spots above the drop zone. There were only five rounds remaining.

However, cheered on by a near-full house, Al Fateh emerged with a season-saving 1-0 victory. They would lose only once more to conclude the campaign in 12th.

“Like I said to you, it's very, very important for us,” Fernandes says. “Because, sometimes when you are on the pitch and you feel the emotions that they have, that they push to you, and it's like extra power to you.

The Al Fateh support out in force for the must-win match at home to Al Khaleej

“And I remember, last season, we had an important game against Damac that is so far away from Al Ahsa, but a lot of Al Fateh people went there to support us and we won.

“It was the game that we secured our stay in the league. It was an amazing day for us and for them.”

For sure, that backing has carried through to the campaign just gone. Indeed, Al Fateh ranked second in the 2025-26 RSL for stadium optimisation, the metric that measures what percentage of a club’s home ground is full on average across the campaign. Al Nassr, the eventual champions, were first.

So, what is it that makes Al Fateh one of the best-supported teams in the Kingdom, in relative terms?

“To be honest with you, even me, I don't know a lot about this," Fernandes concedes. "But I think they believe in us and they want to support the team of their home city.

“And they like to be different. OK, most fans support their team because sometimes it's easy with a club that all the time wins. 'OK, it's a good feeling, we're taking trophies'.

“But with Al Fateh, it’s not like this. However, even in that situation, they make a strong support to us. I think it's like this: they want to support their hometown - they’re proud of it, proud to be different - and we are privileged to have that.

The Al Fateh faithful pay tribute to veteran Mourad Batna upon his 100th RSL appearance for the club

“For me, for example, I come from Vitoria [Guimaraes] in Portugal and it's something similar to this, because they also always have a very big support and they have the Guimaraes people, who like Al Fateh fans, are very close to the club.

“They feel so much the club, the hometown, and they always give to us a good ambience there. And when I came here and I saw that again, it's very special when we feel that we have this kind of relationship with the people of the city.”

It seems, then, that Fernandes found the right employers in Al Fateh when he joined in January of last year.

“Yeah,” he smiles. “The perfect club for me. I think so.”